[English / Japanese]
Originally, there had been a separate project Emacs/W3 which in its time was the most popular web browser on Emacs, but it suffered from slow operation. The decision was made to create this alternative, based upon Akinori Ito's w3m text-mode pager which had WWW capability.
As of 2023, the project is active and has been being supported continuously for over two decades, but since 2005 it has been releasing updates in a "rolling" manner, directly from its repository.
Here's the history of the old milestones under the prior system of issuing 'stable' releases:
The official current version is always available from GitHub.
Historical versions are also available.
emacs-w3m-1.4.4.tar.gz (March 25th, 2005)
 emacs-w3m-1.4.3.tar.gz (August 17th, 2004)
 emacs-w3m-1.4.2.tar.gz (July 14th, 2004)
 emacs-w3m-1.4.1.tar.gz (July 7th, 2004)
 emacs-w3m-1.4.tar.gz (April 29th, 2004)
 emacs-w3m-1.3.6.tar.gz (July 18th, 2003)
 emacs-w3m-1.3.5.tar.gz (July 5th, 2003)
 emacs-w3m-1.3.4.tar.gz (June 18th, 2003)
 emacs-w3m-1.3.3.tar.gz (October 25th, 2002)
 emacs-w3m-1.3.2.tar.gz (September 3rd, 2002)
 w3m_el-1.3.1.tar.gz (July 17th, 2002)
 w3m_el-1.3.tar.gz (July 7th, 2002)
 w3m_el-1.2.8.tar.gz (June 20th, 2002)
 w3m_el-1.2.7.tar.gz (June 3rd, 2002)
 w3m_el-1.2.6.tar.gz (March 12th, 2002)
 w3m_el-1.2.5.tar.gz (March 2nd, 2002)
 w3m_el-1.2.4.tar.gz (January 8th, 2002)
 w3m_el-1.2.3.tar.gz (December 21st, 2001)
 w3m_el-1.2.2.tar.gz (December 6th, 2001)
 w3m_el-1.2.1.tar.gz (November 12th, 2001)
 w3m_el-1.2.tar.gz (November 6th, 2001)
 w3m_el-1.0.tar.gz (May 9th, 2001)
Emacs-w3m supports the latest two major stable versions of Emacs. Thus, when the latest stable Emacs is 30.2, Emacs-w3m is supporting versions 30.2, 30.1, 29.4, 29.3, 29.2 and 29.1.
Older versions of Emacs will no longer be able to use the current version of emacs-w3m.
Pre-release versions of Emacs and even development snapshots are unofficially supported, as we do try to keep the code up-to-date, so if you are using a "bleeding edge" Emacs version and do experience a problem, please do file a bug report by contacting us on our mailing list!
Emacs-w3m requires the latest version of w3m.
Before installing emacs-w3m, check whether your environment meets the requirements.
     First, run the configure script.
     
% ./configure
     However, if you've installed APEL and FLIM in non-standard
     directories (ie. somewhere not on the default
     load-path), you must specify them
     using the --with-addpath option as follows:
     
% ./configure --with-addpath=/your/path/to//apel:/your/path/to/flim
Next, execute the following commands to install emacs-w3m to an appropriate directory.
% make # make install
     If you cannot execute the configure script on your
     system, or if no make command is available, execute
     the following command:
     
# emacs -batch -q -no-site-file -l w3mhack.el NONE -f w3mhack-nonunix-install
     However, if APEL, FLIM (or any other library) are installed in
     non-standard directories (ie. somewhere not on the default
     load-path), the installer won't find them.  In such a
     case, it is necessary to tell the installer where they are, as
     shown below:
     
# emacs -batch -q -no-site-file -l w3mhack.el //c/your/path/to/apel://c/your/path/to/flim -f w3mhack-nonunix-install
Emacs-w3m has many configuration options, but the minimum that is required
is just to put this line into your Emacs init file
(~/.emacs.d/init.el~/.emacs, etc.):
(require 'w3m-load)
You may want to use (require 'w3m-load nil t)require code causes an error because of the
w3m-load.el file missing or other.
| Note for MELPA users: The package distribution does not provide the w3m-load.elfile, but it will be created when performingpackage-installor similar. | 
Just type M-x w3m, and you can use emacs-w3m.
In order to handle text/html part with emacs-w3m under SEMI MUAs such as Wanderlust, put the following line in your Emacs init file:
(require 'mime-w3m)
For more details, see Info manual, or browse the emacs-w3m customization group within Emacs.
The project mailing list, emacs-w3m@namazu.org, is
bi-lingual Japanese / English. It is open to the public, and its
archive is accessible via the emacs-w3m
mailing list archive. You can also subscribe to the
gmane.emacs.w3m newsgroup which is gateway'd to this list
bidirectionally (connect to news.gmane.io using nntp).
If you want to subscribe to this list, check the disclaimer and send a mail containing
subscribe Your Name
(not your email address) in the body to
emacs-w3m-ctl@namazu.org.
To unsubscribe, send a mail containing just
# bye
in the body to emacs-w3m-ctl@namazu.org.
Thanks to the many other people for their great contributions.
In order to contact us, please send a mail to
emacs-w3m@namazu.org.  This
mailing list is gateway'd to the
gmane.emacs.w3m newsgroup bidirectionally  and accepts even messages
posted from nonsubscribers.